An integrated circuit chip (hereafter referred to as an “IC” or a “chip”) comprises cells and connections between the cells formed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate. The IC may include a large number of cells and require complex connections between the cells.
A cell is a group of one or more circuit elements such as transistors, capacitors, and other basic circuit elements grouped to perform a function. Each of the cells of an IC may have one or more pins, each of which, in turn, may be connected to one or more other pins of the IC by wires. The wires connecting the pins of the IC are also formed on the surface of the chip.
A net is a set of two or more pins that must be connected. Because a typical chip has thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of pins that must be connected in various combinations, the chip also includes definitions of thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of nets, or sets of pins. All the pins of a net must be connected. The number of the nets for a chip is typically in the same order as the order of the number of cells on that chip. Commonly, a majority of the nets include only two pins to be connected; however, many nets comprise three or more pins. Some nets may include hundreds of pins to be connected. A netlist is a list of nets for a chip.
Microelectronic integrated circuits include a large number of electronic components that are fabricated by layering several different materials on a silicon base or wafer. The design of an integrated circuit transforms a circuit description into a geometric description, which is known as a layout. A layout includes a set of planar geometric shapes in several layers.
Routing between the components of the chip is typically done utilizing Manhattan routing, in which X and Y Cartesian coordinates are used when laying out lines on silicon. However, such a routing method may limit the chip density, and thus the speed of the chip.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method that may employ non-Manhattan routing through the provision of routing process capable of utilization of arbitrary angles.